Driving Me Crazy
by Wildcat Ohrya
Summary: Lily Evans is insane. James is depressed. Sirius is Sirius. Remus is in love. Petunia is annoying. Peter is somewhere. Begins 5th year, some muggles, some Snapey-ness and pranks. ENJOY!
1. Searching for Allies

Driving Me Crazy

~Part One: Lily's Revenge~

**__**

Chapter One: Finding Allies

"You're crazy!" he shouted

"No I'm not, **you** are!" I replied. Only a little question, I thought to myself. Only a _little_ question. Who gave him the right to shout at me, anyway? And then to call me **crazy!** I couldn't believe him, but I couldn't argue anymore, either.

"Okay then, might I ask why I'm crazy?" a glint in my eye that promised daggers.

"Simple," he replied, giving me that superior look. "It's full moon: Remus is away, and as if we could pull a stunt like-."

He stopped mid-sentence. Partly because I had just hit him, partly because he knew if he kept going I'd hit him again. "Are we going to be serious now?" I asked, sugary sweet. James just glared at me, rubbing his jaw. 

"Full moon?" I whispered, "Isn't that the whole point?" 

Okay, it started like this...I'd always been friends with Snape, ever since I could remember. It was purely logical that our relationship progressed, but for him to now do this... It was unbelievable. I had spent an entire day sobbing into onto my best friend, Sky's, shoulder, and after that... Well, I'd found revenge. I'd gone to my best friend's enemy, James Potter. Oh, of course I wasn't dating him! I wasn't stooping that low! No, I was just planning the demise of my newly made enemy, Severus Snape.

Why had he done that to me? I had thought we were friends, the best of friends; of course, he had his odd quirks, but he had still been loyal to me! Notice the "had", as he certainly wasn't now. Oh how I hated him! To embarrass me like that! We had been good friends, but, no, that wasn't enough for him. He wanted to take that step further. I said "no"…

How I **HATED** him.

He went around the school and told everyone how bad I was. In bed.

The shame! The embarrassment! Am I not allowed to be enraged? Mad? Crazed! For Christ's Sake! I'm only fourteen!

Horror of horrors! He _deserves_ to die!

I stopped and stared at myself. Well, I didn't actually stare at myself, more I just mentally was shocked at myself, and thought of it as staring. I was the passive, kind, studious Lily Evans! Wherever had this nasty streak come from? But I knew the answer to that even before I thought of it. Severus had his nasty points too, so some of it must have rubbed off on me.

We had been spying on the marauders for years now. Severus had always hated James, so I naturally followed suit. Although I thought his reasons extreme (he basically hated James because he hated James, that was about it) I still sympathised with him, I mean, I was his friend, wasn't I? We had noticed that the Marauders had a few secrets a long time ago, but the fact that Remus was a werewolf just hadn't clicked. Or at least, it hadn't to Severus. I had been studying this particular Marauder for some time, but hadn't wished to tell Severus of his particular... abnormalities... as I was obviously worried at what the end result might bring. Oddly enough, the Marauders had never pulled any major pranks on me - I suppose they never noticed me. As I said, I was quiet. I was also a Ravenclaw, so I suppose they didn't associate me much with the Slytherin.

I glanced up at James, pulling myself out of the reverie. I wonder what he thought of the smile that graced my face. I doubt I would have recognised myself, with that evil grin and those wicked eyes. Distractedly I pushed my red hair back behind my ears.

"So, what do you think," I questioned him.

"You're insane. This is simply too dangerous! You're giving into revenge and, while I hate to be the serious one..." He dropped off, not meeting my angry glare.

"Fine," I snapped, "So much for telling me you hate him - you do realise that he wouldn't have thought twice about doing the same to you..."

"And that's another thing," he argued. "How is it that you know so much about Snape? I haven't even seen you before!"

I just smiled at him. He might not have seen me, but I had certainly seen the Quidditch king. "Don't you worry about not having seen me," I reassured him, "the question is, are you In or Out?"

James glared at me - again - I had been certain he'd help me with this, but now I wasn't so sure...

"Fine then," I answered his glare. "You're obviously Out. How about I just go find someone else... Say, Peter?" Smiling evilly with the thought of revenge, I turned away and placed my thoughts on hopefully - or more, they'd better be - my allies.  
  
***//\\//\\***

"Peter!" I called happily. Peter glanced at me, then uncomfortably looked away. "Peter?" I asked, walking up to him. "What is it, Peter?" Once again, Peter looked at me, though he refused to catch my eye."Umm..." he mumbled. "Who are you?" 

I stared at him, aghast. Of course; he had never met me. But still, in my unreasonable state, I had expected him at the very least to have known all about me. After all, I was the "flower slut". I mentally chastised myself for becoming distracted, and then again for distracting myself with chastisements. Breaking out of my confused state, I responded:

"Why, I'm Lily Evans, Peter!" I need to ask you something..." If anything, Peter looked more nervous at the prospect of a question. He stood there, jittering, acting as though he wished he were anywhere but this corridor where I had found him.

"Er," he replied. "Wha- what is it?" He stuttered. If anything, my smile widened... perhaps he might prove helpful.

"Well... Do you think that the Marauders would be interested in helping me pull a prank?" I asked.This time Peter did look at me. "A prank?" He asked, as though it were the last thing he'd thought I'd say. Looking a little less nervous, Peter questioned: "On who?"

"Oh! Just an EX-friend of mine!" There it was, that anger again, I really needed to learn how to control it. "You might know him by the name of Severus Snape." I practically spat the word, so large was my loathing. Some third years walking by looked at me oddly, but scampered when I turned my gaze to them…

I looked back to Peter, who smiled, apparently thinking of fond memories. He then became worried again. "They'd be interested, I think," he mumbled, but I understood him. My smile became wider and wider, though no less malicious."Oh, thank you, thank you!" I cried, but was interrupted by an unhappy Peter butting in to say:"I don't know for certain! Ummm... Umm... Just wait a bit, and I'll ask them. Hmm... maybe you should ask them. I don't know. I'm not in charge, don't ask me!"

I began to feel angry again. "Okay then, who should I ask?" I wondered, guessing immediately that he would say James, which was altogether pointless.

"Why don't you ask Sirius?" he finally posed."Hmm..." I thought to myself. And why hadn't I thought of that? "Thanks Peter!" 

Waving, I ran off to search for Sirius, leaving Peter spluttering at my sudden exit.

***//\\//\\***

"Hmmm..."

"Hmm?"

"Hmmmhmmmhmmm..!"

Well, I suppose it was better than my previous "You're crazy," though it still wasn't too helpful. I looked around the dark classroom while I waited for him to reply. The empty room was bare of everything, with dirt on the floors and giant cobwebs in the corners. I supposed that people didn't come in here much, which made me wonder why it had been here that I found Sirius. Becoming irritated with his "hmm"ing I snapped at him.

"Well?" Lily spat, frustrated, "Are you going to answer me? Or just stand there going _hmm_ for the rest of your life?"

"Hmmm" replied Sirius, with a mischievous glint in his eye, now beginning to rub his chin in the mannerism of deep thought. Suddenly he stopped going hmm and looked up at me, a nasty smile on his face."Getting rid of Severus - for good!" Mused Sirius, still rubbing at his chin. "You know, it sounds too good to be true. And to think I never thought of it, that it took someone, some girl," he mocked, "to come up with it! The only thing I want to know, is how you learnt about Remus."

I looked up at him, quickly, trying to see what he was thinking. His face averted from mine, he had a remarkably blank expression as he studied the dusty walls. All I could see if his black eyes were slight sparkles where the light from the hallway reflected in. Trying to match his blandness, I replied:"He's the only male I know that seems to have a family problem of some sort once a month. And at that, they're always around the full moon! Obviously he's a werewolf, what else could he be?" Sirius smiled at my unwitting joke. Seeing the expression, I questioned myself as to what I was doing with such a disrespectful person. Then I recalled what Sirius had said, and decided that perhaps he wasn't so bad after all...

I suddenly realized that Sirius was speaking, so I pulled myself back into the conversation."And if the Marauders don't help you... What happens then?" He asked, sounding slightly bored. 

I nearly fumed. "If the Marauders don't help me?!" I thought to myself. If they DON'T?! I nearly screamed, and wanted to tear my hair out. I f they didn't help me I'd become murderous, that's for sure! Then I suddenly thought about it harder - and realized that I had an answer."I believe I'm afraid of werewolves. Very afraid." I stated. "What should happen if I ran screaming around the school, yelling garble about Remus being a werewolf? Why, it would be catastrophic!" I finished melodramatically. Meanehile I watched Sirius' face change from confusion to anger, and then fear.

"You wouldn't dare!" he whispered, fiercely.

"Not if you helped me, no," I replied, sounding sweet to let the words sink in.

"You're blackmailing me!" He said angrily. "Imagine that, Sirius Black being blackmailed by some slut who wants to get even with her boyfriend, my enemy."

I slapped him. As hard as I could, I whacked him across the face and grabbed the robes around his throat. "You arsehole!" I muttered. "You monster. I'm not a slut, and that's why I hate him. Don't make me hate you, too." There was no point in saying that. At the moment, I hated him more than Snape. But I think I hated everyone, even my best-friend Sky. Hearing him gurgling for breath, I loosened my grip slightly. With enough oxygen to breathe, he even found enough to speak.

"It's a good thing I'm helping you then, isn't it?"

Smiling cruelly, I let him go and walked away. Looking over my shoulder, I called:

"Meet you at the lake, tomorrow morning. Let's discuss plans."

Turning back to the corridor, I walked back to my common room.

A/N:

I know this is only a short chapter, they slowly increase throughout the story until my average is around 5000 words instead of this measly 1000+. As you may've already guessed, I have this first part of "Driving Me Crazy" already posted at Fanfiction.net (under the title "Lily's Revenge"). The difference is that this will be the edited version and the entire series will be under one title instead of the shorter stories, ie "Lily's Revenge", "Prelude to a Love Story"…

I will be updating as regularly as I edit until I reach as far as I am within the story, which will then be updating much slower as I will have to continue typing out the stories.

"Lily's Revenge" and the other stories will remain posted on ff.net as an arrow pointing to this one - or for those people too impatient for me to post more edited chapters within this story. 

I am doing this at the suggestion of Jess the Great and hope she appreciates it! Thankyou for having put me on your favourites list despite my not having compiled them all together… Please keep reading the story - I promise updates will happen more regularly within the month, for I've got chapter two nearly finished, chapter three well begun and the rest of the story planned out. I'm hoping that it'll all start to snowball pretty soon because I really want to start writing my Marauder piece, which is all about their summer holidays…

-wildcat ohyra-


	2. Feeling the Strain

Driving Me Crazy

~Part One: Lily's Revenge~

**__**

Chapter Two: Feeling the Strain

"Are you alright, Lily?" asked Sky Winkkin, my best friend. 

I looked up at her, not knowing what to say. Of course I wasn't "alright". I was angry, and mad. I suppose I was a little crazy, too. But who wouldn't be? I was tempted to scream when she repeated the question. Instead, I responded with:

"Sure, I'm fine, a bit depressed, that's all." I think she knew that I was lying, but I didn't care, I just sank my head lower into the super-soft arm-chair, soon disappearing altogether as I fell within the folds. It was here that I let myself think. No, I was certainly **not** alright. Even the teachers had noticed, though I doubted that they couldn't have, even if they'd not wanted to. Lily Evans, often called brilliant, almost always top of her class, was quickly falling lower and lower. Sinking down further than she had into this chair. Not bothering to do homework, not bothering to study - not even bothering to come to class. Lily was tired of everything, and she hated everyone. Even Sky, who had been constantly asking "how she was". It was becoming tiresome, hearing people say how worried about her they were, and all she saw was the scorn. When those people looked at her they didn't see Lily Evans, the student, anymore; they saw Lily, the flower slut.

Sinking even deeper, she tried to cease her thoughts, yet they were in too much turmoil. Lily couldn't remember the last time she'd had a proper sleep. She had spent all her nights seething with anger at all the injustices performed to her. Well, now she had found her revenge. 

Sirius had said yes. 

She was meeting him tomorrow. Or was it today? Lily didn't know the time, and didn't bother to look for it. What was the point, she wondered, sleepily. Thinking of revenge, Lily drifted into a fitful sleep, tossing and turning in her make shift bed. Tormented dreams of red, in which she shifted through emotions of envy, fear, sadness, loss and fury were all upsetting in their own way. Waking occasionally from the horrors of her thoughts, she would drift away from her nightmares, dreaming of peace and hope. Nothing was constant, however, and she continued to stumble her way through the dreams all night. 

Salty tears trickled down cheeks flushed with red rage, swallowed up by the thick cushions of her cage.  
  
***//\\//\\***

Sky looked down to her friend, slowly sinking further into the soft chair, and worried. She wasn't used to having to try and support someone. It had always seemed that Lily would be the strong one. Sky easily admitted to herself that she was very dependent on Lily, though now it was hard, as Lily didn't seem so reliable anymore. Hearing some muttering, she looked over to her friend, seeing only some legs and feet poking out of the chair.

"Die, Severus, please, Die..."

And there was the problem, right there. Sky had never really liked Severus, he had always seemed a bit eccentric, obsessed with his hatred of James Potter and that group. Some of his instability must have rubbed off onto Lily, though Sky thought that anyone would be unstable after being hurt that badly. Yet still... Sky sighed. She didn't know how to pull Lily out of this angry phase, but she didn't want Lily to do anything rash. Lily was her friend, and she still respected her, no matter how badly Lily was behaving.

Sitting up, Sky returned to her homework. While Lily was slacking off, Sky didn't think that she had the same excuse, though her work standard, too, had decreased - though perhaps that was due to the more prominent reason that she no longer had Lily there to help her. Without realizing it, Sky stuck out her tongue and began the question - a particularly nasty one set by the potions master about why dragon's blood was used in the process of human to animal transfiguration...

***//\\//\\*** 

They all sat in the massive armchairs that surrounded the fire. Most of the other Gryffindors had gone off to bed, so James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew nearly had the massive room to themselves. They were discussing a girl called Lily Evans. Before today, none of them had really even considered her existence – certainly never spoken more than a sentence with the girl. Now it seemed that they all knew of her, for today she had spoken with each of them.

Sirius whistled, "It's a shame she's crazy. It would have been nice to get to know a girl that gorgeous a bit better." James didn't look interested, the girl was off her rocker, and he didn't need to get any closer to know that. Peter seemed inquisitive, if a mite shy – the girl had rather startled him. Sirius continued to voice his thoughts. "I'll help her, though, it seems we have to, and at least we'll be rid of Snape."

James looked up, sharply. "You're not serious, are you? I hate to be the voice of reason, but this is simply too dangerous. If Remus isn't kicked out of the school, we can at least be sure that WE will be. And, as you said, she's bonkers!"

Sirius gave James a sour look, "You hate to be the 'Voice of Reason', James? Listen, I am the one being reasonable! The damn witch has blackmailed us. It seems we'll be helping her, no matter what. Besides, we **will** be getting rid of Severus, you can't forget that."

"What did you s-say?" Asked Peter. "She's w - what?" He stuttered, confused.

"Blackmailed us," replied Sirius, slightly angry, slightly awed.

"What?" Mocked James. "Has she decided to reveal some of our pranks? Or is it **you** she's blackmailing, perhaps she's learnt all about your little exploit-" James broke off, hunched in agony from the kick he'd received from Sirius. "Oww... that wasn't fair!"

Sirius merely raised his eyebrows at him, then shifted the chair closer to the fire for warmth. "I'm not speaking about what's fair, because what **she**'s done is extraordinarily **un**-fair. As I've said, she's blackmailed us. If we don't help her, she'll start screaming "Wolf!" and then where will we be? Certainly without Remus."

James, who was still grimacing in pain, managed to glare in annoyance at the same time. Peter looked frightened, he'd tucked himself into a little ball and sat there, shivering every so often.

"Don't look so worried, Peter," James consoled, "We'll figure something out, I'm certain of it." James looked over to Sirius, who didn't have the appearance of being so optimistic. His eyebrows were close together, while he sat with his head down, brooding.

"I say we go with it," Sirius spoke suddenly. "If we do it properly, no one will get in trouble, and, you have to remember, we **will** be rid of Snape altogether, and have this girl off our backs." James smiled at the thought of losing Snape, though soon frowned in worry.

"This would have to be the most punishable thing we've ever considered committing. I mean, think about it - we're going to kill Snape. Or at least do something that will have the same result, though I suppose he might just be bitten and become a werewolf… Is that really something that we want to happen, though?" James queried. He didn't know for certain what he wanted. All he could think about was the mad glint in the girl's green eyes whenever she had spoken about what she planned. He'd never worried about something so much in his life.

"Aww, James! Don't be such a stick-in-the-mud! If we concentrate and think it through, this might work," Sirius admonished. "I'm meeting the girl tomorrow. Let's see what happens, maybe she'll be over it be then."

Yet James wasn't concentrating now, he was thinking more about her name, Lily Evans - where had he heard it before. Slowly, a wicked grin appeared on his face.

"Lily Evans - isn't she the 'Flower Slut' or something? 'Uglier than a flower, worse than one in bed!' Now I know where I heard that name: wasn't Severus muttering about it?" James asked.

In response, Sirius grinned. "Don't mention it around her, though - she'll kill you!"

"I'll bet," James was still smiling. But then, more to himself, he muttered, "No wonder she hates him."

***//\\//\\***  
  
Strained muscles screamed down her back, complaining at their abuse as she tried to struggle out of the chair. During the night she must have gotten some sleep, for now the sun streamed into the common room, hurting her bleary eyes. She couldn't remember having dreamt, yet for some unknown reason felt unsettled, as though her dreams had been troubled.

No one else seemed to be up yet, except for a few seventh years probably doing some early-morning study. Uncomfortably, she shook out her spine, then looked around the room again. For some reason her body registered the fact that, considering the time of morning, more people should have been up. Then she remembered. It was Saturday - most people were probably sleeping in. With the thought of what day it was, something else brushed against her hazy memory, though she was too tired to catch it. Sluggishly, she sunk back down into the chair again.  
  
Lily Evans suddenly forced her eyes open, a scowl upon her face. Despite the angry expression, her mouth still grinned, though perhaps she was showing more teeth than necessary... A seventh year student had glanced her way in curiosity - now, however, the girl's eyes were averted, nervous. The word "revenge" seethed into her mind, and she was instantly wide-awake. 

Today was planning day.

Hurriedly, she pulled herself out of the chair, nearly falling over as cramped muscles refused to work. Stumbling, she fumbled her way in to the bathroom, deciding to run a shower in the hope that it would ease some of her soreness. Lately she hadn't been taking much care of herself, and noticed the result as she glanced in the mirror. Her skin was pale and blotchy with unhealth, while her hair hung lank and oily. Glancing over at her crumpled clothes, she decided that they could do with a wash, too. Everything had seemed so hard recently that she hadn't been going to much effort. At all. This was the first time in a long while that she, Lily Evans, was actually going to _do_ something moderately difficult.

Hearing a slight rumble, Lily was surprised to find that she was actually hungry. Eating was another thing that she hadn't been bothering much with recently. Perhaps it was because her plans were finally falling into place that she was at last so content, so happy. To her, this hysterical joy was much better than the depression she had been so caught up in lately.

Stepping into the shower, she allowed a small sigh to escape her lips as the water refreshed. For a moment she forgot all my worries, all her troubles, in the sheer bliss of comfort. A smile graced her face, unlike any that had been seen on me since her break up with Severus. Being lulled by the hot water, she managed to forget why she was going to all this effort. Unfortunately, she soon remembered.

Once again, the word _revenge_ entered Lily's thoughts, and her smile became distinctly malevolent.

… 

Next chapter to be up soon! If I get a big response for this chapter (shoddy as it is) then I'll think about updating sooner. Currently, though, I'll just update when I get 'round to it - once a week or so.

-wildcat ohrya-


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